On This Day: Virginia Kidd

Mildred Virginia Kidd was born on this day in 1921, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

An author, editor and literary agent, Kidd was a science fiction fan from childhood and a member of the influential fan group the Futurians. She was married to fellow-Futurian James Blish from 1947 to 1963 and the two of them, along with Damon Knight, developed the Milford Method of critique – still used at the Milford Writer’s Workshop. Kidd published a handful of stories, the first a collaboration with her then-husband, Blish, ‘On the Wall of the Lodge’, published in the June 1962 Galaxy. Her first solo story, ‘Kangaroo Court’ was published in 1966 in Damon Knight‘s first Orbit anthology.

In 1965, she set up the Virginia Kidd Literary Agency and quickly attracted a strong client list including Ursula Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, Judith Merril, Christopher Priest, Joanna Russ and Gene Wolfe.

Virginia Kidd died in 2003 but her agency survives her and is still home to an imressive list of SF and Fantasy writers.